Corrosion of an austenite and ferrite stainless steel weld

Abstract

Dissimilar metal connections are prone to frequent failures. These failures are attributed to the difference in the mechanical properties across the weld, the coefficients of thermal expansion of the two types of steels and the resulting creep at the interface. For the weld analyzed in this research, it was shown that corrosion measurements can be used for a proper evaluation of the quality of weld material and for the prediction of whether or not the material, after the applied welding process, can be in service without failures. It was found that the corrosion of the weld analyzed in this research resulted from the simultaneous activity of different types of corrosion. In this study, electrochemical techniques including polarization and metallographic analysis were used to analyze the corrosion of a weld material of ferrite and austenitic stainless steels. Based on surface, chemical and electrochemical analyses, it was concluded that corrosion occurrence was the result of the simultaneous activity of contact corrosion (ferrite and austenitic material conjuction), stress corrosion (originating from deformed ferrite structure) and inter-granular corrosion (due to chromium carbide precipitation). The value of corrosion potential of –0.53 V shows that this weld, after the thermal treatment, is not able to repassivate a protective oxide film.

Keywords

• welding
• corrosion
• stainless steel.